One of the more popular size bicycles marketed is a bicycle with a twenty inch wheel. These bicycles are generally shipped with the front and rear wheels mounted in the front and rear wheel forks, but with the seat removed from the seat post and the handle bars and handle bar stem removed from the bicycle and included in the carton in which the bicycle is shipped. The attachment of the bicycle seat to the seat post and the handle bars and handle bar stem to the bicycle are relatively easily accomplished and there is, therefore, relatively little or no resistance from customers to packaging bicycles with these and other minor components disassembled.
However the resulting packages, while more compact than if these components were assembled, are still too large to be shipped by the most economical shipping carriers. For example, conventional bicycle packages cannot be shipped by parcel delivery service because the length plus the girth limitations imposed by a commonly used parcel service is 108 inches, and a typical twenty inch bicycle packaged conventionally with just the handle bars and seat removed would generally run well in excess of this and may in fact, depending upon the particular model of twenty inch bicycle packaged, run in excess of 130 inches.
As used herein the term "length plus girth" is the dimension arrived at by measuring the outside length of the carton plus the width of its top and bottom walls plus the height of each of its side walls. Because conventionally packaged twenty inch bicycles cannot meet the 108 inches length plus girth limitation, they must be shipped by other methods, such as motor or rail carrier, at extremely higher shipping costs.
In an attempt to reduce the overall size of a bicycle shipping package, although not necessarily to permit such packages to be shipped by parcel service rather than, for example, motor or rail carrier, one approach has been to remove the front wheel of the bicycle from its forks. The removal and replacement of the bicycle front wheel is a relatively simple job and can be performed with a minimum of tools and, therefore, similarly to the removal of the handle bars and seat, does not meet with significant customer resistance. Rear wheel removal, however, is generally not considered feasible because the drive chain must also be removed and, particularly in the case of multi-speed bicycles, it is more difficult and time consuming to reassemble a bicycle on which the rear wheel has been removed as opposed to the front wheel.
Two U.S. patents which disclose a bicycle package in which the front wheel is removed are U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,339,947 and 3,929,225. In the former the front wheel is simply removed and placed alongside the remainder of the bicycle and maintained in position by means of a spacer. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,225, an end opening carton is disclosed having upper and lower trays which are provided with cut outs to receive the front wheel and the remainder of the bicycle components. The assembly of front wheel, bicycle, bicycle components and upper and lower trays are slid into position through one end of the carton.
However, insofar as is known, neither of the packages described in the above noted patents has, for a twenty inch bicycle, a length plus girth dimension of 108 inches or less, and hence, such packages cannot be shipped by relatively inexpensive parcel service.